Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

There was an alternative. The Government could have pursued this money through taxation or by reconfiguration with regard to forms of capital expenditure. However, the most important thing of all, which must be admitted even by people on the Government side and those who support the Government, is that there was an opportunity for an entirely new departure in social protection. Let the record state that when we were saying Ireland had the second highest incomes in the world and the best incomes in the European Union, we were never above the bottom three in the EU in terms of social protection. There was an opportunity.

I ask the Minister not to tell us there was no alternative. There was. It was costed and documents were printed by different parties - the Labour Party, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin. The Minister cannot use the Bill to try to extend the nonsense that was spoken during the budget. There was an alternative. We can make arrangements for after Christmas if required. When the Minister's colleague, the Minister for Finance, says the worst is over, what he is really trying to say is that we are going back to the old game all over again. The old game is over. Our function on the social welfare Bill is to make the case for the poorest people and make sure they are not the ones who carry the burden. That is why I wish we were not only on section 4. We must get on to all the other sections which deal with appliances and so on - all the basic things that people need to live decently, which are being attacked in this Bill.

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